It’s time for the big reveal…

What a tremendous turnout for our Flash Fool contest! All you incredibly creative writers kept us guessing throughout. We received entries at nearly Flash Monster levels (besting Flash Future by a considerable margin). That was great to see with a more difficult challenge this time around—pulling off a good twist is tough to do!

The selection process was especially challenging, so much so that we’re going to give a shout-out below to some of those writers who were in the running late in the game but didn’t quite squeak into the Top 10. It was a really close call with the last 20-25.

The Flash Fool mega-issue will run tomorrow (April Fools’ Day), and it’ll feature everyone in the Top 10. That issue will also celebrate five years of The Molotov Cocktail as we embark on our first issue of Volume 6.

Once again, I’d like to extend a heartfelt thanks to killer poet and perfumer Mary Bondfor her continued work as a guest co-judge. Her contributions have been invaluable to keeping these contests flowing smoothly.

As I mentioned, we don’t usually do this, but since the contest was so close at the end, we want to thank a handful of writers who were still in it right down to the wire. The close-but-no-cigar recognition goes to Chris Milam, Grace Black, Robert White, Ryan Wrenn, David Novak, Jean-Luc Bouchard (2), Stephen Spanos, Rich DiPippo, Amanda Sage, Brett MilamandChristopher Iacono. Great work, everyone.

And as you’ll see in the prize winners section, it looks like we had a twist ending of our own!

But first…

Honorable Mentions:

10th place – “Mime on Trial” by Nicholas Lamb

9th place – “Days to Go Before I Sleep” by Christina Villafaña Dalcher

8th place – “Peaches” by Stephanie Roman

7th place – “Death Smells Like Bananas” by Juan Carlos Orozco

6th place – “Three Brittle Pigs” by John Rickett

5th place – “Bottle Rocket” by Tracy Garbutt

4th place – “Sight of a Sneeze” by Colton Adrian

And the cash money winners:

Wait for it…

wait for it…

wait for it…

3rd place – “Strawberry Jam” by R.A. Roth ($50)

2nd place – “Honey Devlin” by R.A. Roth ($75)

1st place – “Our Little Ghost” by JT Gill ($200)

That’s right, in a twist to us editors, R.A. Roth scored both 3rd and 2nd place (we read these submissions blind) with two stories that had such a drastic variation in tone and voice that we were dumbfounded to learn they were written by the same person! Multiple submissions pay off. Great work, Randy.

Nevertheless, when unmasked it’s actually JT Gill who is our big winner, taking home the $200 top prize and the crown for Flash Fool. And he would’ve gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!